The Normal Day
by CutieLemon07
Summary: We've seen the stressful days Jack's experienced, so what about the normal ones, where nothing really out of the ordinary happens?


9:00

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><p>Jack Bauer was awoken by the sound of his alarm clock. Grunting, he put it on snooze and turned over underneath his warm bed sheets. He wanted five more minutes of sleep and nothing would stop him achieving this. His cat, however, had other plans. She wandered over to the side of Jack's bed and meowed really loudly in his face. Jack growled and turned over again to escape his cat's demands. The cat saw this as permission to leap onto his bed and begin to crawl on him. Jack yanked his bed sheets hard, causing the cat to lose balance. Jack grunted in satisfaction. The cat decided to meow again, this time louder and in succession. And as if to annoy him further, Jack's alarm clock went off.<p>

"Alright! I'm awake!" He shouted, earning a chirrup of satisfaction from his cat. Jack growled and pulled his iPhone out from under his pillow and scrolled through his now limited list of contacts until he landed on the one he wanted. He gave a small smile as he sent a quick text before setting the phone down and picking up the black and white tuxedo cat that occupied the space next to him. "Come on, Justin. I'll only feed you if you shut up." The cat meowed as Jack set him down on the floor and walked tiredly into the bathroom.

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><p>9:10<p>

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><p>Jack emerged from the bathroom looking no different. As he walked into his kitchenette to make himself breakfast, the little tuxedo cat meowed and followed him. Jack opened his cupboard and pulled out a pod and inserted it into his coffee machine, turning it on. He then turned to his meowing cat and sighed. He took out a box of cat food and poured the crunchy, dry food into his bowl. As he kept the cat food box, Jack rummaged through his cupboards for something he could eat for breakfast, because after all, this was probably going to be the longest day of his life. Or at the very least it would <em>feel<em> like it. A box of _Golden Grahams_ caught his eye so he pulled it out and shook it. He figured there was probably enough there to feed him, so he set the box down on the kitchen counter. Now to check the milk. He opened the fridge and unscrewed the lid on the carton of milk. He peered inside and then sniffed it. Like the cereal, the milk was probably okay. It wasn't going to poison him because after all, no terrorists had been after him or his family recently. He took a look in his crockery cupboard and noticed there weren't any bowls, plates or much Tupperware left. Then his eyes flitted over to the sink, full to the brim with dirty dishes, some of them which hadn't been washed in a week. Jack grunted softly and poured the milk into the cereal box. Since the cereal was in a bag, Jack figured the milk wouldn't cause the box to decay. He then looked in his cutlery drawer and realized he was all out of spoons-also knives and forks for that matter. He stoically grabbed a melon baller and made his way out of his kitchenette and threw himself down on his couch. He quickly fumbled for the remote and then turned the TV on. _Good Morning America_-boring. George Stephanopoulos-boring. _Sesame Street_-no way. He was big, tough Jack Bauer, he wouldn't be caught watching Big Bird and Elmo, not while his daughter was all grown up. That would be a sure fire way to let the terrorists know his weakness. He turned the channel over to_ NBC_ and _The Today Show_ was on. Briefly, he watched that before the ad break came and confident that no terrorist had his apartment bugged, on came Big Bird and Elmo. "How the hell _do_ you get to _Sesame Street_ anyway?" He asked his cat, who was now brushing himself on Jack's leg, meowing. "See, I thought you wouldn't know." He laughed, spooning his cereal into his mouth with the melon baller.

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><p>9:35<p>

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><p>After finishing his breakfast and lounging around for a few minutes, Jack pulled himself up off his couch and back into his bedroom. His cat stayed behind on the couch to lick himself. Once in his bedroom, Jack pulled one of his drawers open that contained several pairs of jeans. He took out a pair of faded light blue jeans and closes the drawer. He moved over to his closet and picked out a white t-shirt and a blue checked flannel shirt.<p>

After he was dressed up, Jack was putting on his socks when his phone rang. He went to answer it. "Bauer." He said, almost instinctively.

"Jack, hey, it's Chloe." Chloe said happily.

"Chloe? What's going on?" Jack asked, with a small smile.

"Not terrorists!" Chloe and Jack laugh. "No, I just wanted to remind you-like I do every morning-about the carpool…"

"Carpool-damn it. I forgot all about it. Who's doing it today?" Jack asked, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Ryan. I'm tomorrow and the day after it's you, after you it's Myles and then it's back to Ryan." Chloe says.

"I should've remembered that." Jack shook his head and sighed.

"Whatever. I'm only gonna end up reminding you again tomorrow morning." Chloe laughed.

"I have a terrible memory." Jack laughed back.

"Unless terrorists are involved!"

"Are they involved?" Jack asked. Terrorists hadn't been in his life for over a year. At all. He almost wished for any sort of terrorist threat-even a hoax-just so he would have something to do at work. That's why he adopted Justin the cat, to give him something to do with his boring life.

"No, Jack. This is just your normal, average, run of the mill, ordinary day."

"You know all those words mean the same thing, right?"

"Yes, Jack. I'm not _completely_ stupid." Chloe laughed and Jack sat on his couch looking awkwardly with his phone in his hand. "So we'll be here in about 10 minutes."

"Okay. Bye." Chloe began to hang up the phone. "Chloe, it's weird talking on the phone and I'm not begging you for schematics."

"You haven't done that for over a year, Jack."

"I know. It still feels weird."

"See you soon." Chloe said and hung up.

"Yeah." Jack muttered softly as he put his phone in his pocket. He looked around his apartment and sighed. His cat was now curled up in a ball on his couch. He stands up to go and look for his shoes at the side of his couch. There he found many pairs in a small pile and groaned. The first shoe he removed from the pile was a black Chuck Taylor, so he decided to dig for the other one, which was at the bottom of the pile. After he put his shoes on, Jack heard a knock on his apartment door and assumed it was Chloe. He turned his TV off so she wouldn't know he'd been watching Sesame Street and then he opened his door. Standing there was not Chloe, but a young man of around 30, wearing jeans, a black t-shirt and a green hoody. His medium length hair was scruffy, as if he hadn't tamed it that morning.

"Dude this place looks awful." Was the first thing the young man said.

"It's not that bad, Myles." Jack said, once again glancing over to his sink. Myles saw Jack's eyes move and looked at the sink himself.

"That sink is just full of dirty-when was the last time you washed your dishes?" Myles asked. Jack's eyes narrowed.

"You're not my mother. I'm grown-ass single man and Kim's not around, so I don't worry about anyone except me." Jack growled to his colleague as he poured the coffee he prepared earlier into his thermos. "And Justin."

"Who's Justin…?" Myles caught a glance of the sleeping cat. "My, my, Bauer. Haven't we gone soft?"

"Myles." Jack said, warningly.

"I'm just kidding, Jack. You and that damn cat."

"Damn it, Myles-I haven't got time for your fun and games." Jack whispered loudly as he picked up his phone. "Where's my wallet?" He lamented as he searched in between his couch cushions and under his couch. Myles walked over to Jack's leather jacket, draped over a chair in his kitchenette and removed something from the pockets.

"Jack, is _this_ your wallet?" Myles asked, holding the item in the air. Jack turned around quickly.

"Yes!" He shouted. "Thank you! Where was it?"

"In your jacket pocket." Myles shrugged. "Come on, we're gonna be late." He opened Jack's apartment door. Jack rummaged through his jacket pocket for his apartment key.

"Let's go then." Myles left Jack's apartment, with Jack closely following.

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><p>9:45<p>

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><p>Myles led Jack to his small Ford and Jack groaned. He was always stuck in the back unless it was Chloe's turn to lead the carpool. Of <em>course<em> she let her best friend ride shotgun-that was as predictable as neither of them actually _admitting_ that they were best friends. It was an unwritten code of their relationship, but somehow, they both knew anyway. This is why Jack was inwardly delighted when he found he would be sharing the back seat with none other than Chloe.

"Jack, you look…" She paused for thought. "Younger." She said eventually. "You're not having some sort of mid-life crisis are you?" She asked, knowing that she could tease Jack this way and not have her head bitten off by him afterwards. Jack simply laughed.

"I'm in my mid-40s. Chloe, I know that. I'm just not dressed for kicking terrorist ass today." He opened his Thermos and poured some coffee into the mug-lid. "You wanna try? It's hazelnut-supposedly." He shrugged, handing the mug-lid over to Chloe, who took it and had a small sip.

"Damn it, Jack!" Chloe said, gasping for breath.

"What's the matter? Are you allergic?" Jack asked.

"No, it's just damn hot!" She whined. Handing the mug-lid back over to Jack who roared with laughter at his friend's misfortune.

"I forgot-_the cold never bothered you anyway_!" He sang. Chloe playfully hit Jack and began to laugh along with him.

Myles smiled at the two friends having fun in his backseat. As he drove on and Jack and Chloe were still laughing and playing about, it dawned on him why some others at CTU wondered if Jack and Chloe's relationship was purely platonic. It was, of course, but there was that nagging feeling in his head that he knew more about Jack and Chloe's relationship than they knew themselves. He pulled up at another apartment complex and honked his horn. Another young man, this time wearing a suit, ran out of the apartment complex carrying a black satchel. He pulled open the door to Myles' car and threw himself into the front seat.

"Sorry, guys, sorry." He panted.

"Why, Ryan?" Myles asked.

"I'm late?"

"Bauer's fault." "Jack's fault." "My fault." Myles, Chloe and Jack said in unison.

"I literally only just got here." Myles said. "I had to go pick up Bauer from Kabul."

"That's my apartment, Myles." Jack said stoically.

"Huh. Coulda fooled me, Jack." Myles smiled.

"Ready for work?" Myles asked, changing the subject. Everyone groaned, knowing that there was a high chance they'd be doing nothing today, as had become usual.

"We'd better go. It's almost 9." Jack said, checking his phone.

"Your fault, Jack." Chloe said.

"As if."

"No... It is. I had to go get you." Myles said.

"Whatever."

"If you'd be a bit more organized, Jack..."

"What? I'm not organized?" Jack raised his voice. "Excuse me, but I've been saving the world from terrorists since before you kids even so much as thought about leaving college."

"It's true." Chloe shrugged. "You don't know what to do with yourself now that there's no terrorist threats."

"So he's bored?" Ryan asked.

"In a way, yes, I think he is." Myles said. "He's been focused on catching terrorists for so long that now that there are none, he doesn't know what to do with himself."

"Like when a pro-football player retires?" Ryan asked.

"Yeah. But with less money."

Jack huffed in the back seat and checked the time on his phone. 8:59. They were going to be late for work.

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><p><strong>AN: So I had this idea very early in the year and decided to build on it now. I don't really ship JackxChloe, though I know some people who do. I merely enjoy the closeness of their friendship and figure that without terrorist, they'd be doing normal best friend activities. OCs included because Jack needs to interact with people that aren't either terrorists or people named Chloe. I do not own 24 or any of its characters in any way. **


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